{"id":1882,"date":"2020-11-27T15:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T20:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/?p=1882"},"modified":"2021-04-12T12:44:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T16:44:18","slug":"passion-histoire-blog-michelle-gervais-pioneer-of-francophone-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/passion-histoire-blog-michelle-gervais-pioneer-of-francophone-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"PASSION & HISTOIRE BLOG – Michelle Gervais, pioneer of francophone tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Since Michelle Gervais has just received a prestigious national tourism award from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, we also wanted to pay homage to her in our own way on this blog.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Michelle is the pioneer of francophone tourism in Manitoba.\u00a0 As such, she has worn many hats:\u00a0 tour guide, founder of the \u00d4 Tours company, director of Tourisme Riel, member of the Travel Manitoba and Tourism Winnipeg boards of directors, manager of bilingualism and even Festival du Voyageur princess.<\/p>\n

When I asked Michelle how she introduces herself to someone in the tourism industry that she had never met, she mentioned right away her mission, promoting the francophone attractions of Winnipeg and Manitoba, and its longevity.<\/p>\n

Understandably, during her thirty-year career, Michelle has witnessed an evolution.\u00a0 Before, conversations necessarily started with questions to which we have probably all had to provide an answer at some point in our lives:\u00a0Where\u2019s Winnipeg? And Manitoba, where\u2019s that? What\u2019s there to do over there?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Now, Manitoba is on the Canadian and International tourist maps thanks to the polar bears, the Winnipeg Jets, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.\u00a0 Its attractions no longer have to prove themselves, but are valued instead.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re sure that Michelle\u2019s energy and engagement contributed greatly.<\/p>\n

In fact, Michelle is a passionate person.\u00a0 Of all the roles she has held, tour guide is the one that she prefers, being able to progressively see the negative perception visitors might have transformed throughout their visit and discoveries.\u00a0 A guide has to welcome their visitors the same way they would themselves want to be welcomed.\u00a0 As such, \u00d4 Tours has presented the city to thousands of travellers, vacationers crossing Canada by train, professionals on business trips, French Canadians searching for other francophones, exchange students, Americans on fishing trips.\u00a0 No matter the origin or reason for visiting, all visitors remember their time in Manitoba, partially thanks to Manitobans.<\/p>\n

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Our discussion was not lacking in anecdotes.\u00a0 The long journey towards a recognition of the importance of the francophone market.\u00a0 An eye-opening experience of francophone tourism in Louisiana.\u00a0 Issues surrounding the sale of her business, that had been able to fill a void and offer a service that didn\u2019t exist elsewhere, the sale of which could have triggered the disappearance of the French language. The challenges surrounding this francophone question. The creation of training in tourism at the start of the 2000s in what was then still referred to as the Saint-Boniface College.\u00a0 It was impassioned.<\/p>\n

Thirty years after her very first professional experience at the Festival du Voyageur, Michelle leaves us a nice legacy.\u00a0 There is a considerable rise in the number of people who continue her mission to make Saint-Boniface, Winnipeg, and Manitoba known in and out of our provincial borders.<\/p>\n

Retirement is not a state of mind for Michelle and I\u2019m certain we\u2019ll see you again, in Saint-Boniface or elsewhere, very soon!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since Michelle Gervais has just received a prestigious national tourism award from the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, we also wanted to pay homage to her in our own way on this blog. Michelle is the pioneer of francophone tourism in Manitoba.\u00a0 As such, she has worn many hats:\u00a0 tour guide, founder of the \u00d4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-st-boniface"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2324,"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/passionethistoire.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}